RATIONALE: Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. It is not yet known whether mastectomy, chemotherapy, and/or hormone therapy are more effective with or without radiation therapy in treating breast cancer. PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of mastectomy, chemotherapy, and/or hormone therapy with or without radiation therapy in treating women who have stage II breast cancer.
OBJECTIVES: * Compare overall and disease-free survival in women with stage II breast cancer with one to three positive nodes treated with radiotherapy vs observation only after mastectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy. * Compare local regional control in patients treated with these regimens. * Assess the potential toxic effects of radiotherapy in this patient population. OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to prior systemic hormonal therapy (chemotherapy with or without hormonal therapy vs hormonal therapy alone), prior taxane exposure (yes vs no), and duration of chemotherapy (no chemotherapy vs less than 3 months vs 3-5 months vs 6 months or more). Patients are randomized to one of two treatment arms. * Arm I: Patients undergo radiotherapy 5 days a week for 5 weeks. * Arm II: Patients are observed for disease progression. Patients are followed every 6 months for 2 years and then annually for 15 years. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 2,500 patients (1,250 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 5 years.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
98
surgery
Cancer Care Ontario-Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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